Sony Corp., NTT DoCoMo Inc., Sakura Bank, and eight other...

Sony Corp., NTT DoCoMo Inc., Sakura Bank, and eight other companies announce that they have reached a preliminary agreement to form a joint venture in January to provide prepaid electronic money services. The coalition includes Toyota Motor Corp., Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, KDDI (also known as DDI Corp.), and Denso Corp. The Sony group will hold a 47% stake in the venture, while NTT DoCoMo and Sakura Bank will each hold a 15% stake, and the remaining companies will hold the remainder. The venture will have a capital of 5.0 billion yen ($44.3 million). The prepaid electronic money service will concentrate on small settlements, distinguishing itself from existing card settlement businesses like credit cards.According to Shigeyuki Kawai, the newly appointed representative director of the joint venture, "I don't think our services will be in a position to compete with other settlement services." The joint venture will combine consumer electronics, telecommunications, financial services, and automobile expertise from leading Japanese firms. The venture plans to issue 30 million non-contact integrated circuit prepaid cards developed by Sony over the next five years and start full-scale services in October next year.

Sunday, 24 December, 2000